Davis On Outside Looking In

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Chris Davis is absolutely mashing the ball in spring training out in Arizona.

The 25-year-old first/third baseman has definitely made a case to get another shot on the big league roster with the Texas Rangers after two straight seasons of being sent down to the minors after his emergence onto the scene in 2008 when he mashed for half a couple months to close the season after a call-up.

But there's one problem for Davis: The Rangers are stacked, and they're especially crowded at the corner infield positions.

Davis is hitting .409 this spring with an out-of-this-world slugging percentage of .841, four home runs and a spring-best 15 RBIs.

The Rangers signed Adrian Beltre to be their everyday third baseman and moved Michael Young to a super utility role in which he'll play a little bit of every infield position, with an emphasis on first base.

Mitch Moreland entered the spring as the starter at first base after a stellar postseason in 2010, and has done nothing to lose that job, hitting a .373/.418/.667 line in the spring. Add in the acquisition of Mike Napoli, a guy who just murders left-handed pitching, to play some catcher and some first base, and the corner spots are awfully crowded.

Davis is a stellar defensive player, both at first and third, but people need to remember one thing. Davis did this same thing last spring, putting up insane numbers, before limping out to start the season and not clearing the Mendoza line (.200 batting average). He was also on pace to set a MLB record for strikeouts in a season, and likely would have if he had stayed up all season. This spring, he has nine strikeouts in 45 at-bats. Not too great.

Davis also has one more option remaining, meaning the Rangers can send him down to the minors at no risk of losing him, and that's what they'll likely do unless the interest that has started to build from other teams culiminates in a deal for perhaps a closer.

So one thing is for certain regarding Davis, there will be a lot of home runs flying out of Dell Diamond down in Round Rock.